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OK…most regulars here know a little about me, I’m gay…and Catholic. I certainly don’t associate myself with the “mainstream gay groups”, much less the “leather crowd”. That being said:

I think there’s a bit of an overreaction to this ad. Yes…it’s a take-off of The Last Supper, but what is the original painting but a painting? It’s not a holy relic.

I would be offended if they used an image, say, of the crucifixion…a la the Pepsi/Madonna debacle a few years ago. But there have been sooo many “Last Supper” parodies by sooo many, in a way it’s a bit overdone.

Miller has had a decent history of supporting gay events and charities. As have many corporations…they saw a target market with expendable income, and it’s done well for them.

I simply cannot see how this ad is offensive…

Again, let me say that the Folsom Fair isn’t something I would attend anyway. But Miller shouldn’t be in hot water over this.

I’ve slowly been gravitating toward Bud and its offshoots over the last several years. Now I am making the switch 100%. Always found Anheuser-Busch to be a patriotic company, too; hope they don’t have similar issues.

And the Catholics will start rioting in the streets and burning things in 3….2…..1….. Oh, wait.

San Francisco is full of a bunch of adolescent children thinking that “shock value” is going to get them respect when all it gets them is disdain and annoyance from “flyover country”. I couldn’t move out of there fast enough. Have fun with your crappy parade and your further sinking into crime and chaos, San Fran.

I’m not Catholic, but the obvious hypocrisy bugs me. The Folsom Street Fair can do this, if next year, it’s a picture of Yasser Arafat or Mohammed in a “compromising” position. Yeah, not gonna happen ’cause of the obvious conclusion. Respect for religions should be universal, not just ’cause you’re scared the Moslems are going to riot in the street.

True, masquerading as art most of the time. This isn’t just about a painting. This is a central part of the Christian belief. “Do this in remembrance of me.” Does it become ok to offend us just because we don’t threaten violence on our own behalf? Is there no place we can’t go to offend Christians? Is there no line that can be crossed? We just have to take it all?

Everyone, and I mean everyone, was outraged over the idea of the nooses hanging from the tree in Jena(as they should be), but depicting our God and Savior in an S&M ad is something we should just let slide??

The marketing dept must be drinking a little too much of their product PRIOR to making decisions.
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Like someone said yesterday ( much better than I could), try that with Mo and some sex toys… and ya know, see what happens.

But see, the point is (and I hope this answers other questions here too) this ad is not making fun of Christian beliefs. It’s a simple parody of a very well-recognizeable painting. There’s no “Christian bashing” going on.

As a Catholic, yes…I fully respect the eucharist and what it is. But again, this is just a take-off on a painting that is recognizeable by everyone, not just Christians.

On September 27th, 2007 at 11:10 am, ThackerAgency said:
um, may they all burn in hell? Is that offensive? not meant to be.
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I’d like to see these ‘brave artists’ put up a poster of ole’ Mo gettin it up the butt.

JetBoy, in my church above icon screen, there is an icon of the Last Supper. While it is just a painting and probably one of the most recognizable ones in the world, it does hold meaning for millions of Christians. For someone to substitute sex toys for the Body of Christ is insulting.

It is. It might not offend you but it offends me. Good thing that I think all Miller products taste like cr@p. I had my first and last Miller High Life when I was 16 21. And back then I was drinking schiltz malt liquor and OE8 due to lack of choices in the inner city bodegas. Still rather drink those than Miller.

I think you are wrong here Jetboy, The purpose of the ad is to insult christian values. And thereby sell Miller products to the screwballs who get their rocks off by pissing off the christians. The ad is not nation wide, just for the San Fran area. So it’s intended purpose is pretty clear to me.

But see, the point is (and I hope this answers other questions here too) this ad is not making fun of Christian beliefs. It’s a simple parody of a very well-recognizeable painting. There’s no “Christian bashing” going on.

Oh, I completely disagree. This is an obvious ploy at bashing and hating Christians and their beliefs. It’s pathetic and childish. “Liberals” in San Francisco take great joy in bashing Christians and hiding under the free speech umbrella. The fact is, none of this ‘ad’ crap would have happened if they decided to bash Islam. Christianity is an easy target because most Christians would (as Gutfeld put it regarding Olbermann and Fox News) just shrug and continue on with life.

This is an obvious attempt to generate publicity and to show how “mean” Christians are when the people with this ad are the ones who are blaspheming and mocking another person’s dearly held beliefs. Class-ay.

It’s much like the painting of Jesus at St. Catherine’s Monastery. Although it’s not something Jesus ever touched, it’s a sacred religious item and should not be mocked by those who do not believe in the same thing.

Exd 20:7Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.
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This goes far beyond this Commandment!
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and if you are one who says, Oh God understands it’s a joke. I’m sure He does but I do not believe He is the least bit amused! as I am not!

Wow, I underestimated the amount of offense this ad apparently has on a lot of people. Still, I don’t get it.

When people like Ann Coulter and Jerry Lewis made blatant anti-gay slurs, I was told “get over it” and “it’s only a joke” and “no reason to be offended”…?

I just fail to see how this is offensive to Christians, especially since I am one. Again, if this were of, say, the crucifixion, with a bunch of guys under the cross with “sex toys”, I’d be the first to say “Yes, this is an obvious attempt at anti-Christianism” and call for a Miller boycott.

And to relate this somehow and say “Why don’t they do a Mohammed parody?” is truly stretching it. Any old Mohammed painting (of which there are few) would hardly be recognizeable to the American public.

I guess maybe because I work in Advertising design, I see something completely different here. There is no bash on Christianity, save that it’s a take-off of simply a famous painting that everyone can recognize.

I think you are wrong here Jetboy, The purpose of the ad is to insult christian values. And thereby sell Miller products to the screwballsfreaks and sexual deviants who get their rocks off by pissing off the christians. The ad is not nation wide, just for the San Fran area. So it’s intended purpose is pretty clear to me.

conservnut on September 28, 2007 at 11:48 AM

Just keepin’ it real. JetBoy, I respect your opinion and your right not to take offense by this. Respect mine: I do. As in the law, my perception of this poster is driven by intent, and I have no doubt that the intent of this most hatefully anti-Christian element of our society was to offend on the basis of religion, and I honestly don’t believe that you’re missing this part of the message.

As for the eucharistic aspect … dude, they have taken the painting that depicts the last supper and defiled it with S & M toys. This is not just another painting, like they took American Gothic and put the farmer in a ball gag and leather harness.

I think everyone is seeing the original Last Supper painting as somehow connected to Christianity itself. I’m not talking about the actual event of the “last supper”, I’m talking about the painting. Who knows what the actual event looked like…suffice to say Da Vinci took some artistic liberies with his version.

I see the painting as almost “pop-culture” in it’s essence. You could take Peanuts cartoon characters, put them behind a long table like that, and everyone will think “last supper”.

There is, in my opinion, no direct intent here to be anti-Christian. I don’t see it. And suffice to say there is plenty of evidence that: Da Vinci was hardly a devout Christian himself, and that he very well may have been gay.

As to the offensiveness of the image, it is not only a reference to an iconic painting, but also a re-imagining of an event. In the context of the new depiction of the event, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me,” has an entirely different literal meaning. The consumption of the body now has a sexual connotation. The new literal meaning combined with the spiritual meaning of the event posits that what was rewarded with fire and brimstone in Genesis is now rewarded with eternal salvation in 2007. The Christ figure in the image is offering his body to his leather clad apostles as a means to obtain salvation. How can the image not be offensive when it appropriates Christian iconography to convey a message that is anathema to Christianity? Aside from the homosexuality considerations, it asserts that salvation is found through lifestyle rather than faith.

I have been to this street /kink fair more then a few times. When you live in this city some times its nice to watch the freak shows. Miller has been connected with this more then just this year.
They are a main stay as there beer booths are littering the 3-4 blocks this takes affect on. I have seen first hand accounts of sex acts on the street , which by the way is zones commercial residential that means store front warehouses street level apartments above . I was there in 2002 they had booths for the PLO sympthise4s and 2 booths for john Kerry for president. Amidst the multiple vendors selling whips flogger canes ect . Not once have I seen the SFPD enforced any kind of laws on the street, why when cracking down on public nudity or open sex acts will upset the special interest group that run the city “GLBT”. Also not once has the city said no because of the traffic mess it causes. But it will be a cold day in hell when they give the US military the same cart blanch to host any events in the city,
This is just another example of we can say and do what ever we want and be damned if you don’t like it, but if you say anything against us you’re a bigot a homophobe a racist and should be run out of the city like mark leno basically said to the Christian youth holding a rally at Pac bell park.

Always found Anheuser-Busch to be a patriotic company, too; hope they don’t have similar issues.

RW Wacko on September 28, 2007 at 10:30 AM

I think I may have said this before, but Anheuser-Busch is a very patriotic company. My dad works for a polymer company and said Busch accepted nothing but American made products, even though they were cheaper when imported. Same with Tropicana.

Jetboy is right when he says that Da Vinci’s painting is not a holy relic (though it is a fresco inside a famous, near relic, church on one of the walls) but just a painting. To be sure, there have been many parodies of the painting (one of the best is in the movie M*A*S*H).

But that isn’t the point.

Art is communication. Picasso’s Guernica was one of the most effective anti-war/anti-fascist messages ever told. Da Vinci was trying to convey a moment of high religious signifigance, the first Communion. That was his message.

The Folsem parody has another message entirely, and one that IS deeply insulting to Christians, because the photographer’s intent *WAS* to denigrate Christianity. This wasn’t an accident of parody. It was, I believe, deliberate.

It is part of a theme. It is the same message of denigration communicated by Andres Serrano in his “Piss Christ” (a crucifix in a jar of his own urine) in 1989, and by Chris Ofili in his picture of Mary splattered with elephant dung. By the way, Bernard Goldberg in his book 100 People Who Are Screwing Up America (and Al Franken is #37) ranked Ofili #86.

The claimed “free speech” issue, isn’t. After all, neither Miller, the photographer, nor the models are facing criminal prosecution, imprisonment or death for their role in making the poster, unlike what would happen in a muslim country if the target were Mohammad. Nor did the government step in and premptively censor the photograph before publication.

Miller (by virtue of sponsoring the event and the photo) and the photographer CHOSE to insult us. And that is all that matters.

Jetboy may not have been insulted, and that’s okay. But many of us were.

You make a great point, about those other “artworks” like the “Dung Madonna”. I remember when that exhibit was going on…in Brooklyn I believe…and the outrage surrounding it.

Now those pieces I would say “Yes, they are offensive”, as they make an implicit statement on Christianlity. But I also believe (having been an art student) that these things should neither be banned nor censored. If you don’t like the art in an exhibit, don’t go and see ‘em. The “Last Supper” in question, tho, is probably eant to be plastered around town to promote the event, so avoiding it may not be simple.

Another good point you make is:

After all, neither Miller, the photographer, nor the models are facing criminal prosecution, imprisonment or death for their role in making the poster, unlike what would happen in a muslim country if the target were Mohammad. Nor did the government step in and premptively censor the photograph before publication.

Exactly. That’s part of the give-and-take of a free society…that not everything will be endorsed by everyone. And yes….you would never see anything even remotely similar in a Muslim nation.

So let’s not try to be like one. I just think there’s more important things to worry about than some group making a parody of a very famous (and not famous simply because of it’s Christian nature) painting for their own benefit.

Here is the rub for me {no pun intended}, as I have been around this sub culture, It would be a rally cry if a picture was posted depicting their protected class in a vile light. It would be labeled homophobic, bigoted,racist and sexist . But in the same breath they do this as a way to shove a finger in the eye of another group of people to make themselves feel morally superior. I’m not going by a third party story, I have seen it first hand .If it was reversed it would be called hate speech, but they shield their hate with the code words of art or satire.
nothing more then self gratifying narcissism.

I thought this would be nice to read to see how this is being played by the other side. Also nice for them to give a contact number at miller. I hope this doesn’t violate the tos.

Please support FOLSOM STREET FAIR by calling Miller Brewing Company and thanking them for their continued support of the Folsom Street Fair.In addition congratulate them for not caving to right-wing pressure to pull out from presenting sponsorship of our Fair.
We have worked successfully with this company for many years, and they have been very supportive of our community. With so much “negative”attention being paid to the Folsom Street Fair poster, we think it’s important for Miller to hear from you!
Please contact Miller spokesman Julian Green at green.julian@ mbco.com
or call 1-800-MILLER 6 or 414-931-2000 to let them know how much you appreciate standing up for us.
Thanks for your support,
and we hope to see you at Venus’ Playground and/or the Folsom Street Fair
this weekend!
Thanks in advance,
Countess
Public Relations Coordinator
Folsom Street Events Women’s Area “Venus’ Playground”

Michelle, great expose as usual and the Hot Air and M/M teams are to be congratulated.

As a aged Hippie Dippy of S.F. who has worked and lived in the tenderloin, I will tell you this could be the last supper for a large number of the participants. Their lifestyle will always catch up with them.